My Beloved Wife Cooked Ginataang Kalabasa

During my stay in Thailand, I was forced to learn cooking because no one was there to cook for me and eating Thai instant noodles for 6 months is not good. I cooked the failed tortang talong, carbonara-style spaghetti, weird afritada, and my favorite pork adobo.

Now that I’m a married man, it is My Beloved Wife who does much of the cooking. Last Sunday she cooked her own version of Ginataang Kalabasa and Sitaw. Our guide for this cookery is the recipe in Panlasang Pinoy website.

Her ingredients are:

Shrimp, already cooked by boiling and the shell removed
Pieces of chicken meat
Kalabasa (squash), diced
Sitaw (string beans), cut to bite-size
Onion
Bell pepper
Gata (coconut milk)
Tomatoes, sliced
Bagoong (shrimp paste)
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil
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She started the cookery by preparing the ingredients. She squeezed out the coconut milk; diced the kalabasa; sliced the sitaw, onions and bell pepper; and cut pieces of chicken meat.

You might be wondering what I’m doing while she’s doing all the hard work. Well, I just took the photos. I left the cooking to the expert. :-)

Next is she sautéed the garlic and onion, followed by tomatoes, then the chicken meat and the bagoong. Then she placed the shrimps.

Then she poured the gata. The diced kalabasa was then placed when the gata started boiling. The sitaw followed the fray. The last to join the pot is the bell pepper. My Beloved Wife waited for the last two veggies to be cooked before placing salt and pepper, according to her taste.

And the result is…

…a yummy ginataang kalabasa.

And I’m not the only one who said that My Beloved Wife’s ginataang kalabasa is delicious. Her office mates, even her boss, praised her ginataang kalabasa.

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My Beloved Wife said that the first squeeze of gata should be placed last (maybe after placing the kalabasa and the sitaw) to make the ginataang kalabasa more creamy. The second squeeze of gata is the one that should be placed after the sauté.
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